How will the Parliament improve the life of persons with Disabilities in Europe? EDF is asking all parties to express their view on 7 key questions on disability in Europe. PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is the first to answer.

European Disability Forum: In 2007, the European disability movement collected 1,3 million signatures across Europe, realising the citizen’s right of initiative enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty, asking the European Union to enact effective legislation for people with disabilities covering all areas of life.

How can the PES contribute to making this demand a reality?

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen:

The PES has adopted a Manifesto for the 2009 EP elections. We want to put
people first, which of course means all people, independent of whether they
have disabilities or not. The PES has long urged for effective legislation that
empowers the 65 million EU-citizens with disabilities. We have a strong track
record on defending the rights of people with disabilities in the 2004-2009
parliamentary term and before.
Socialist and social democratic MEPs in the European Parliament played an
important role in urging the European Commission, headed by Conservative
Commission President Barroso, to fulfill its promise of bringing forward a
Directive outlawing discrimination on all remaining grounds of article 13 of the
EC Treaty. In April 2009, strong support from the PES MEPs resulted in the
European Parliament voting in favour of broadening the scope of existing EUantidiscrimination
law, so that it would also help to fight discrimination against
people on the basis of disability, age sexual orientation, belief or religion in the
areas of education, social security, health care and goods and services. 1 The
conservative group voted against protecting these people against
discrimination, with some MEPs such as Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany)
even dismissing the proposal by claiming that it would lead to “too much
regulation”

As stressed in the anti-discrimination bill that was passed in April 2009, merely
prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities is not enough. It is
necessary to take action by offering appropriate adaptation for people with
disabilities, such as ensuring that public buildings are accessible to people in
wheelchairs. In the next five years the PES will continue to work on that and –
in cooperation with the European Disability Forum and other civil society
actors – consider where existing EU legislation needs to be strengthened and
where new directives and regulations could be elaborated, in order to put an
end to discrimination of the disabled.
The EDF’s contribution to the new anti-discrimination bill has been crucial. The
PES is convinced that the bill, as it has been voted in April, could not have
come about without the efforts of the EDF and its ‘1milllionForDisability’-
campaign. Many PES MEPs supported the European Disability Forum (EDF)
in its campaign to collect at least one million signatures for strong disability
legislation.

In the next parliamentary term the PES will continue its efforts to strengthen
anti-discrimination legislation.

EDF: The European Parliament is still largely inaccessible to many Europeans with disabilities, who as a consequence feel alienated from Europe. This is especially acute in relation to the website of the EP and of many individual MEPs, to the availability of information in alternative formats and to the limited number of persons with disabilities employed in the Institution.  

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen:

The PES shares the European Disability Forum’s concerns about the lack of
accessibility of the European Parliament to people with disabilities. In the next
parliamentary term, the PES will work on:
- promoting the employment of more people with disabilities in the
European Parliament;
- making our website and the website of the PES Group in the European
Parliament more accessible to the blind and partially sighted;
- encouraging MEPs to pay more attention to the needs of people with
disabilities. This could, for instance, be applied to visitor groups to the
European Parliament in Brussels or Strasbourg and MEP websites.
In its election campaign, the PES has taken into account the needs of visually
impaired and blind people by providing talking versions of the PES manifesto
for the European elections. The talking versions of our manifesto can be
downloaded here.

EDF: Although there are 65 million persons with disabilities in the EU and one family out of 5 is concerned by disability, persons with disabilities are invisible in the Lisbon Strategy. How should this be rectified in the views of the PES?

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen:

The Lisbon Strategy was developed under the leadership of socialist and
social democratic governments, European Commissioners and MEPs in 2000,
with the aim to increase the coherence of social, employment, economic and
environmental policy. In 2005 the Barroso Commission, dominated by
conservatives and liberals, in cooperation with a similarly right-wing European
Council, imposed a profoundly conservative, neo-liberal agenda on the Lisbon
Strategy, largely excluding the social integration and social protection aspects.
This has weakened the potential of the strategy to contribute to more highquality
employment and stronger social policies.
In the European Parliament report on the Lisbon Strategy PES MEPs have
succeeded in building a majority for strengthening the social dimension of the
strategy, which would also be to the benefit of persons with disabilities and
their families. Amongst others the EP calls for a better link between economic
stability, sustainable development, social inclusion and increased employment
as well as improved economic coordination and for good quality, affordable
and universally accessible social services, In close cooperation with the
socialist government in Spain, which will hold the EU Presidency in the first
half of the year 2010, the PES is working on a new, stronger and more social
Lisbon strategy to be adopted in the spring of 2010. In order to prepare our
position and strategy on the Lisbon Strategy and other political processes in
the next years, we have established regular contacts with civil society
stakeholders such as the European Disability Forum and will launch a PES
Social Europe Network very soon, dedicated to maintaining these contacts on
a more permanent basis.

EDF: Mainstreaming disability across all policy areas will be one of the requirements of the conclusion of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and of the implementation of the non discrimination provisions in the Lisbon treaty. How does the PES envisage mainstreaming disability in the areas beyond the more obvious field of social policy – such as internal market, information and communication technologies, transport, industry, research or external relations?

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen:

The PES agrees that the needs of disadvantaged people need to be taken into
account in the design and implementation of all policies and measures.
Therefore, our election manifesto includes the proposal of including a social
progress clause3 in every piece of European legislation. This would ensure
that social impact, including on people with disabilities, is taken into account
when developing European legislation.

EDF: Thousands of people with disabilities live in long-term residential institutions far away from the community, in violation of their basic human rights with no control over basic choices in their daily lives. This is partly due to the lack of access to affordable and accessible service of adequate quality. What should the response of Europe be in this respect?

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen:

Although social policies will remain largely in the competence of the member
states, the PES is campaigning for ensuring that the EU takes more
responsibilities in this field. PES has been campaigning in the past years for
affordable, accessible and good quality public services throughout the EU, by
adopting a framework directive on services of general interest. Furthermore
we continue fighting for a social Europe that serves the needs and aspirations
of Europe’s people in the future. We need better economic and social policies,
not fewer, to make Europe’s welfare societies more inclusive, strong and
sustainable.4 We also believe that the European structural funds, especially
the European Social Fund, could be used much better to support disabled
people and to integrate them into society. Furthermore, we are convinced that
more people need to be employed in the health and social service sector in
the next years, not only to allow persons with disabilities and illnesses to
participate better in society and in the labour market, but also to create the
new jobs that will be lost as a result of the financial and economic crisis.

EDF: The consequences of the financial crisis have been especially severe for the most vulnerable groups of population, including persons with disabilities and their families: the adaptation of a house, or purchase of assistive devices indispensable to gain autonomy and participate actively in the society are often a serious financial burden for persons with disabilities and their families. What measures does the PES recommend to address it?

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen:

The global economic and financial crisis is hitting our economies and ordinary
people all over Europe hard. Real wages and people’s purchasing power are
being undermined, unemployment will rise – especially for the most
disadvantaged groups in society – and social security systems will be
increasingly under pressure. The PES has been advocating bolder proposals
from the European Commission and the member states. The financial markets
must be reformed and large scale investments, in the form of a new European
recovery programme, are necessary to relaunch the economy and to create
new green growth and jobs. Concrete action at the European and national
levels is necessary in order to protect those hit first by the crisis, for example
by extending unemployment benefits, special education and training programmes and labour market reintegration measures and support for those
who do not have access to the labour market. We are working closely with our
MEPs, Commissioners, social democratic and socialist governments as well
as stakeholders and academics to develop and implement an alternative
progressive European Recovery Programme, making a real change.

EDF: Travelling, studying or living in another country, one of the greatest benefits for EU citizens derived from the European Union, is a huge challenge for persons with disabilities or for families with a family member with a disability. What action does the PES envisage to address this?

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen:

Already in the past years we contributed with our work to “more free” travel of
people with disabilities. In 2005 , the European Parliament passed the Evans
Report 5 (PES, UK) on increasing the rights of persons with reduced mobility
when travelling by air.
In the next parliamentary term we will continue to stand up for the rights of
people with disabilities, also with regards to travelling, living and studying
abroad. For instance we will work on strengthening provisions in European
mobility programmes in education and training to pay more attention to the
needs of people with a disability. In the EP report prepared by Christa Prets
(PES, Austria) on the European Quality Charter for Mobility, it is stated that
people with disabilities should have equal access at all levels (regional and
national) to reliable sources of information and guidance for mobility.6 If the EU
institutions and the member states do not deliver in this regard, we will
campaign in the European Parliament for stronger and more binding
legislation.
The PES aims to give people a fairer deal. This also means making sure that
the 65 million EU-citizens with disabilities are included in society. We firmly
believe that Europe should not be a market place that undermines working
and social conditions in the name of higher profits. Nor should Europe be a
society of entrenched inequalities where those who are poor remain poor and
those who have disabilities are excluded. Our vision for Europe is of a society
where all people can fully develop their potential and talents thanks to ever
improving living standards, decent and stable work, safety and a clean
environment.

More information:

Visit PES website

Contact: Aurélien Daydé

Email: aurelien.dayde@edf-feph.org